a time–crossed love
by Meatball42
Summary: "The Doctor's going to fix everything. The world will be set to rights. Everything will go back to the way it was." "I don't want things to go back to the way they were."


The Hub is nearly silent. The sound of their breathing seems tiny in the wide open space, and the only other disturbance is the humming of her computers as they run various programs. There are no more sounds of wings ruffling or the mild caws that would signify Myfanwy moving in her sleep. They let her out months ago, having run out of food for her. They'd left her to fend for herself. The tracker he'd implanted years ago still showed movement, mainly in the forest, so the fact that she was still alive was a pinprick of brightness in the dark tunnel that had become their lives.

He ponders this as they lay on a mattress on the floor of the Hub. Her breaths are a slow, constant sound beside him, and he takes in air silently through his mouth so he can hear it better. Their bare bodies are pressed together by his arms around her, one under her shoulders and the other clutching her waist. Both her hands grasp at his arms. It's a somewhat uncomfortable position to sleep in, but they stay there anyway because they can take safety from the other's presence.

Tonight, he can't sleep. His mind is racing with the tidings of their recent visitor. He stares at her beautiful face, barely lit in the shadows of the Hub, dips his head to take in the scent of her hair, which has somehow still retained a fruity smell despite the unscented shampoo they've been using for the last year. He strokes her soft skin, trying to commit the feel of her into his memory. He closes his eyes, pulling her even closer to him, hoping to imprint the sensations of holding her in his arms to his mind. The shifting jostles her, and her eyes crack open.

"Ianto? What's the matter?"

"Nothing. Go back to sleep," he whispers, his low voice soothing. She's not fooled.

"You're usually dead to the world at this time of night." She turns around to face him fully, waiting for his arms to resettle around her before continuing, voice still cracking with sleep. "You're worrying, aren't you?"

He smiles slightly, eyes locked on hers. "You know me too well."

She smiles too, reaching out to caress his shoulder and chest. "What is it?"

He looks away, eyes tracing the high, sloping roof of the Hub, the same sight that has greeted him every morning for the past twelve months. Sometimes, he doesn't know how they haven't gone crazy. Then again, maybe they have. It's not like the rest of the world hasn't.

"Is it what Martha said?" she asks when he doesn't answer. The way his face shifts minutely, barely visible in the dark area, tells her she's right. "The Doctor's going to fix everything. The Master will be gone, Owen and Gwen and Rhys will be alive again. Jack will be safe. The world will be set to rights. Everything will go back to the way it was."

He doesn't move for several minutes, but she knows not to interrupt his thoughts. Instead, she runs her eyes over him, his pretty nose and wide forehead, the sideburns she sometimes tickles to tease him. The planes of pale skin his suits had hidden. The jagged scar across a pectoral, inflicted when he'd saved her from a Toclofane four months ago. Owen had put the stitches in and she'd taken them out; the doctor had died at the hands of a UNIT officer before the wound was healed. She traces it absently with one hand, then leans in to trail kisses down the length of it.

"I don't want things to go back to the way they were." She waits silently, holding back the questions in her mind.

"Before this happened, I was wasting my life away waiting for Jack to come back. I don't know how long it would've taken me to get over him, or if I ever would have. You spent all your time mooning after Owen, and who knows if he'd ever have pulled his head out of his arse? I don't want to go back to that." He finally looks back into her eyes.

"I love you Toshiko, and I don't want to forget that when time turns back."

She shifts uncomfortably, realizing that she was so excited at the prospect of the world being returned to order that she'd somehow missed this factor. "I'm sure we can still be together when time reverts."

"But we won't!" Ianto insists, voice growing louder with emotion. "If it weren't for Gwen dying, we'd never have seen each other. I thought of you as a sister, not someone I could love. It took the world ending for us to wake up, Tosh." He laughs at the end, sounding almost hysterical.

She snuggles closer, slipping an arm around his waist, and he clutches her tighter in return. "I love you too, Ianto. And I think that, when time turns back, we'll figure it out. This was meant to be, we were meant to be." She smiles, her face inches from his. "Something will happen, just like it did six months ago. Maybe it won't be Gwen dying… maybe Owen will get married!" He smiles back, more because he adores the way her voice cracks than the joke. "But _something _will happen, and we can fall in love all over again."

Ianto ponders for a moment. "How do you know?" He whispers.

"I just do. I have faith that we'll survive this. We survived a whole year, we should be able to survive it backwards as well!" This time her smile is returned by a sigh.

"I was never devout."

She presses a soft kiss to his lips, smiling into him when he deepens it. After a moment she pulls back.

"I love you. And I believe that I'll still love you, even if we don't remember this year."

His eyebrows crease doubtfully, but he sees the conviction in her eyes. "Then I suppose I have no choice but to believe as well." They smile at each other and kiss again.

A week later (a year before), they forget.


End file.
